ID :
210149
Thu, 09/29/2011 - 07:35
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Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/210149
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*** FOREIGN TIPS
NORTH KOREA NEWSLETTER NO. 177 (September 29, 2011)
*** FOREIGN TIPS
U.S., N. Korea Seeking Further Nuclear Talks in October: Official
BEIJING (Yonhap) -- The United States and North Korea are seeking to hold a second round of talks early October to discuss terms for resuming the long-stalled six-nation negotiations on ending the North's nuclear weapons programs, a South Korean official said on Sept. 22.
The bilateral talks are expected to follow a series of meetings held between the Koreas' chief nuclear envoys in Beijing on Sept. 21. Wi Sung-lac of South Korea and Ri Yong-ho of North Korea said their discussions had been "useful," but they failed to agree on the terms for resuming the six-party talks that were last held in December 2008, according to South Korean officials.
The multilateral forum, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, aims to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons programs in exchange for economic and political aid. It has been dormant since Pyongyang quit in April 2009 and conducted its second nuclear test a month later.
"North Korea is pushing to hold the next round of bilateral talks with the U.S. in Pyongyang, but Washington is strongly against it," said one senior South Korean official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Currently, the two sides are discussing the possibility of meeting in a third country."
Possible meeting places include Singapore, Berlin and Geneva, the official said.
If held, the U.S.-North Korea talks will come shortly after the two sides met in New York in July. Those preliminary discussions also came directly after Wi and Ri met for the first time in more than two years on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Indonesia.
"In the future, (we) hope to establish this system of holding inter-Korean talks and U.S.-North Korea talks in parallel sessions," the official said, saying that a third round of talks between the Koreas is also being discussed.
"We proposed continuing this process of inter-Korean denuclearization talks, and the North Korean delegation did not object."
Seoul and Washington have insisted that Pyongyang halt all nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment program, and allow U.N. inspectors to monitor the suspension as preconditions to reopening the six-party talks. North Korea, however, is pushing to resume the forum without any conditions attached.
Wi and Ri failed to narrow their differences over the terms, but they were able to develop a better understanding of each other in some areas, and clear misunderstandings in others, according to South Korean officials.
North Korea has a track record of using provocations and dialogue with South Korea, the U.S. and other regional powers to try to wrest concessions before backtracking on agreements and abandoning talks.
On Sept. 22, Wi met with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, to discuss the results of his talks with Ri and the next steps in reopening the six-nation forum. At the closed-door meeting, Wi told Wu that there could be progress in denuclearizing North Korea if such inter-Korean dialogue continues, South Korean officials said.
The South Korean envoy also asked Wu for China's cooperation in creating the right conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks by such means as persuading the North to accept the South's terms, officials said.
------------------------
S. Korea Confiscates 46.5 Bln Won Worth of Smuggled N. Korean Goods
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea has confiscated about 46.5 billion won (US$39.4 million) worth of North Korean goods being smuggled into the country as Chinese brands since Seoul suspended its trade with Pyongyang last year, a lawmaker said on Sept. 22.
South Korea suspended trade with the socialist state in May last year after a multinational team of investigators confirmed that the North torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26 near their disputed western maritime border.
"From May last year until August this year, 46.5 billion won worth of North Korean goods have been confiscated as they were being smuggled in as Chinese brands," Rep. Kwon Young-se of the Grand National Party said during a parliamentary audit of the Korea Customs Service.
Kwon said that the North seems to be using Chinese brands to keep selling its products in the South after the inter-Korean business channel was blocked.
Anthracites made up the majority with 45 billion won worth of the commodity being confiscated. Potato starch came next with 900 million won, the lawmaker said.
------------------------
North Korea Allows Foreign Tourists in for Bike Trip
SEOUL (Yonhap)-- North Korea allowed foreign tourists to go on a bicycle trip within its borders for the first time, according to the Telegraph, a British daily newspaper.
The Beijing-based tourism company Koryo Tours, specializing in tours of North Korea, took 24 tourists from 10 nations on a 10-day tour of North Korea, the newspaper said on Sept. 22.
The tourists rode their bicycles as far as 30 miles a day along the 10-lane Youth Hero Highway from Pyongyang to Nampho, a roadway that was built in October 2000 as the seventh highway in the country.
North Korea has recently been seeking the expansion of its tourism industry. In March, the KCNA released a report under the headline of "DPRK (North Korea) pays effort to improving tourism infrastructure."
So far this year, Air Koryo, the country's flag carrier, added three more overseas destinations: Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia; Kuwait City, the capital of Kuwait; and Shanghai, China.
In late August, North Korea launched a pilot program of tours of the Mount Kumgang resort for foreigners. South Korea's Hyundai Asan Co. started inter-Korean tours of the resort in 1998, but they were suspended in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead during a visit.
------------------------
Price of Rice in N. Korea Rises over Past 6 Months: Ministry
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The price of rice in North Korea has risen constantly over the past six months, reaching as much as 2,400 North Korean won (US$17.18) per kilogram early September, South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Sept. 23.
After falling to as low as 1,400 won per kilogram, rice prices started to increase in April and reached between 2,200 and 2,400 won by early this month, according to the ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.
The ministry said the data was based on the testimonies of North Korean defectors.
The North Korean people are known to suffer from chronic food shortages due to poor harvests and economic mismanagement. The country has relied on foreign handouts since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that reportedly killed 2 million people.
In Pyongyang, the price of rice started to soar on rumors that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il failed to secure much aid during his trip to Russia last month, according to Good Friends, a private South Korean relief group. It also said some top officials at the North's Ministry of Foreign Trade were arrested or replaced over their inability to obtain food.
Meanwhile, recent international rice donations are reportedly not enough to feed the North's population of 24 million.
------------------------
N. Korea, U.S. to Resume Talks on Recovery of War Dead in October
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea and the United States will resume talks in October on recovering the remains of American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, a South Korean official said on Sept. 23.
The move will follow a series of recent diplomatic efforts by South Korea and the U.S. to reopen the long-stalled six-nation talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons programs.
In August, North Korea accepted a request by the U.S. for talks on resuming remains recovery for the American war dead. Nearly 8,000 U.S. service members are listed as missing from the war and the remains of more than half of them are estimated to be buried in the socialist nation.
"I learn that arrangements have been recently finalized between North Korea and the U.S. to resume their talks on excavating and repatriating remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War," the official at Seoul's foreign ministry said on the condition of anonymity.
The official said the North Korea-U.S. talks might take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the two sides had held meetings on the issue before.
The U.S. has recovered more than 220 sets of remains since 1996, but it halted joint recovery efforts with North Korea in 2005, citing the safety and security concerns of its workers.
On Sept. 21, the chief nuclear negotiators from the two Koreas held a second round of talks in Beijing and discussed terms for resuming the six-party talks, which also include China, Japan and Russia.
Although the Beijing meeting produced little progress, the two sides called it "constructive and useful."
Their first meeting in July prompted senior North Korean and U.S. diplomats to hold a rare meeting in New York.
After this week's inter-Korean talks, South Korean officials said that North Korea wants to hold a fresh round of bilateral meetings with the U.S. next month.
The six-party talks, aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programs in exchange for economic and political aid, have been dormant since Pyongyang quit them in April 2009 and conducted its second nuclear test a month later.
The North has long sought to improve relations with the U.S. and sign a peace treaty to formally end decades of enmity since the war, which ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.
------------------------
North Korea Deepens Trade Dependence on China
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea's trade dependence on China deepened over the past four years, in contrast to a reduction in South Korea's share in the North's external trade, Seoul's Unification Ministry said in a report on Sept. 25.
The proportion of China in North Korea's foreign trade is on the rise, increasing from 41.6 percent in 2007 to 49.5 percent in 2008, 52.7 percent in 2009 and 57.1 percent last year, the report said.
By contrast, South Korea saw its share of the North's trade declining from 38.0 percent in 2007 to 33.0 percent in 2009 to 31.4 percent last year, it noted.
In terms of trade volume, too, bilateral trade between North Korea and China jumped from US$1.97 billion in 2007 to $2.68 billion in 2009 and $3.47 billion in 2010, the report said, adding the inter-Korean trade volume slightly increased from $1.8 billion in 2007 to $1.91 billion last year.
Inter-Korean relations tumbled to their lowest point in decades, after Seoul imposed sanctions on North Korea last year for an island shelling and the March sinking of a South Korean warship, which together killed a total of 50 South Koreans.
------------------------
N. Korea's Leader-in-waiting Increases Public Appearances
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea's leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un has actively taken part in public activities since he officially debuted a year ago, South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Sept. 26.
Kim accompanied his father, the country's leader Kim Jong-il, on 100 out of 152 inspection tours for the past one year, the ministry said after analyzing North Korean state media reports.
The move illustrates that Kim Jong-il's plan to extend his family dynasty for a third generation is under way in the isolated country.
The North Korean leader named his youngest son, Jong-un, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party and a four-star general last September in the clearest sign yet to make him the next leader.
The succession, if made, would mark communism's second hereditary power transfer. The elder Kim inherited power from his father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.
On 26 of the 100 outings, the heir apparent son inspected military units along with his father, while on 25, he visited economic facilities, according to the ministry that handles inter-Korean affairs.
Kim Jong-un attended a summit between his father and Laos President Choummaly Sayasone in Pyongyang last week, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency.
Kim Jong-un has not yet made any solo inspection trips, though some photos released by the North's state media put the leader-in-waiting in the center of the photos.
The North has also taken steps to idolize Kim Jong-un in an apparent move to consolidate support from its people in the country's power succession process.
------------------------
Further N. Korean Provocations Could Be on the Horizon: Adm. Willard
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The military commander in charge of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region expressed concern on Sept. 27 that North Korea will resume belligerence related to its ongoing power succession.
"The dynamics surrounding succession and, you know, most importantly, the prospect of continued provocations is another dynamic that we must pay very close attention to," Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a briefing at the Foreign Press Center in Washington.
He said the U.S. believes that succession was a factor in the North's deadly attacks on the South in 2010 that killed 50 soldiers and civilians.
The North's leader, Kim Jong-il, suffered a heart attack in 2008 and apparently has named his third son, Kim Jong-un, as successor.
The senior Kim's health remains a subject of speculation. Earlier this week, a Japanese news agency reported that he had canceled a meeting with a visiting Indonesian delegation led by former President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
"And the prospects that he (Jong-un) could be somehow accountable in a next provocation is important to understand as well," Willard said.
He added that his troops are carefully monitoring the possibility of further nuclear and ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang, especially next year, which the communist regime has declared a self-styled "strong and prosperous" year.
"You suggest that in the nuclearization regime, the prospects of ballistic missile launches or additional nuclear tests could be on the horizon, and we watch these things very carefully and we are concerned, as you suggest, that he will continue to promote his ballistic missile programs as well as his weapon programs," he said in response to a question.
Willard said the U.S. and South Korea under President Lee Myung-bak are discussing how to respond to future provocations by the North. The commander added South Korea's stance has become far tougher since the two unprovoked attacks by the North last year.
"The attitude of the South Korean people and the attitude of President Lee's administration has fundamentally changed," he said. "And there is very strong, I think, intolerance at this point for any other additional provocations."
As to reports that South Korea is seeking to purchase the U.S. Global Hawk surveillance planes, the admiral said the allies are in discussions.
"There are discussions ongoing with regard to surveillance capabilities in the South," he said. "And I think the United States, as you know, is very guarded about these high-tech capabilities, you know, being provided as a defense article. So that discussion is, in fact, occurring."
The sale of the cutting-edge aircraft requires congressional approval for a waiver under the Missile Technology Control Regime.
(END)
*** FOREIGN TIPS
U.S., N. Korea Seeking Further Nuclear Talks in October: Official
BEIJING (Yonhap) -- The United States and North Korea are seeking to hold a second round of talks early October to discuss terms for resuming the long-stalled six-nation negotiations on ending the North's nuclear weapons programs, a South Korean official said on Sept. 22.
The bilateral talks are expected to follow a series of meetings held between the Koreas' chief nuclear envoys in Beijing on Sept. 21. Wi Sung-lac of South Korea and Ri Yong-ho of North Korea said their discussions had been "useful," but they failed to agree on the terms for resuming the six-party talks that were last held in December 2008, according to South Korean officials.
The multilateral forum, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, aims to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons programs in exchange for economic and political aid. It has been dormant since Pyongyang quit in April 2009 and conducted its second nuclear test a month later.
"North Korea is pushing to hold the next round of bilateral talks with the U.S. in Pyongyang, but Washington is strongly against it," said one senior South Korean official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Currently, the two sides are discussing the possibility of meeting in a third country."
Possible meeting places include Singapore, Berlin and Geneva, the official said.
If held, the U.S.-North Korea talks will come shortly after the two sides met in New York in July. Those preliminary discussions also came directly after Wi and Ri met for the first time in more than two years on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Indonesia.
"In the future, (we) hope to establish this system of holding inter-Korean talks and U.S.-North Korea talks in parallel sessions," the official said, saying that a third round of talks between the Koreas is also being discussed.
"We proposed continuing this process of inter-Korean denuclearization talks, and the North Korean delegation did not object."
Seoul and Washington have insisted that Pyongyang halt all nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment program, and allow U.N. inspectors to monitor the suspension as preconditions to reopening the six-party talks. North Korea, however, is pushing to resume the forum without any conditions attached.
Wi and Ri failed to narrow their differences over the terms, but they were able to develop a better understanding of each other in some areas, and clear misunderstandings in others, according to South Korean officials.
North Korea has a track record of using provocations and dialogue with South Korea, the U.S. and other regional powers to try to wrest concessions before backtracking on agreements and abandoning talks.
On Sept. 22, Wi met with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, to discuss the results of his talks with Ri and the next steps in reopening the six-nation forum. At the closed-door meeting, Wi told Wu that there could be progress in denuclearizing North Korea if such inter-Korean dialogue continues, South Korean officials said.
The South Korean envoy also asked Wu for China's cooperation in creating the right conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks by such means as persuading the North to accept the South's terms, officials said.
------------------------
S. Korea Confiscates 46.5 Bln Won Worth of Smuggled N. Korean Goods
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- South Korea has confiscated about 46.5 billion won (US$39.4 million) worth of North Korean goods being smuggled into the country as Chinese brands since Seoul suspended its trade with Pyongyang last year, a lawmaker said on Sept. 22.
South Korea suspended trade with the socialist state in May last year after a multinational team of investigators confirmed that the North torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26 near their disputed western maritime border.
"From May last year until August this year, 46.5 billion won worth of North Korean goods have been confiscated as they were being smuggled in as Chinese brands," Rep. Kwon Young-se of the Grand National Party said during a parliamentary audit of the Korea Customs Service.
Kwon said that the North seems to be using Chinese brands to keep selling its products in the South after the inter-Korean business channel was blocked.
Anthracites made up the majority with 45 billion won worth of the commodity being confiscated. Potato starch came next with 900 million won, the lawmaker said.
------------------------
North Korea Allows Foreign Tourists in for Bike Trip
SEOUL (Yonhap)-- North Korea allowed foreign tourists to go on a bicycle trip within its borders for the first time, according to the Telegraph, a British daily newspaper.
The Beijing-based tourism company Koryo Tours, specializing in tours of North Korea, took 24 tourists from 10 nations on a 10-day tour of North Korea, the newspaper said on Sept. 22.
The tourists rode their bicycles as far as 30 miles a day along the 10-lane Youth Hero Highway from Pyongyang to Nampho, a roadway that was built in October 2000 as the seventh highway in the country.
North Korea has recently been seeking the expansion of its tourism industry. In March, the KCNA released a report under the headline of "DPRK (North Korea) pays effort to improving tourism infrastructure."
So far this year, Air Koryo, the country's flag carrier, added three more overseas destinations: Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia; Kuwait City, the capital of Kuwait; and Shanghai, China.
In late August, North Korea launched a pilot program of tours of the Mount Kumgang resort for foreigners. South Korea's Hyundai Asan Co. started inter-Korean tours of the resort in 1998, but they were suspended in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead during a visit.
------------------------
Price of Rice in N. Korea Rises over Past 6 Months: Ministry
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The price of rice in North Korea has risen constantly over the past six months, reaching as much as 2,400 North Korean won (US$17.18) per kilogram early September, South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Sept. 23.
After falling to as low as 1,400 won per kilogram, rice prices started to increase in April and reached between 2,200 and 2,400 won by early this month, according to the ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.
The ministry said the data was based on the testimonies of North Korean defectors.
The North Korean people are known to suffer from chronic food shortages due to poor harvests and economic mismanagement. The country has relied on foreign handouts since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that reportedly killed 2 million people.
In Pyongyang, the price of rice started to soar on rumors that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il failed to secure much aid during his trip to Russia last month, according to Good Friends, a private South Korean relief group. It also said some top officials at the North's Ministry of Foreign Trade were arrested or replaced over their inability to obtain food.
Meanwhile, recent international rice donations are reportedly not enough to feed the North's population of 24 million.
------------------------
N. Korea, U.S. to Resume Talks on Recovery of War Dead in October
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea and the United States will resume talks in October on recovering the remains of American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, a South Korean official said on Sept. 23.
The move will follow a series of recent diplomatic efforts by South Korea and the U.S. to reopen the long-stalled six-nation talks on ending the North's nuclear weapons programs.
In August, North Korea accepted a request by the U.S. for talks on resuming remains recovery for the American war dead. Nearly 8,000 U.S. service members are listed as missing from the war and the remains of more than half of them are estimated to be buried in the socialist nation.
"I learn that arrangements have been recently finalized between North Korea and the U.S. to resume their talks on excavating and repatriating remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War," the official at Seoul's foreign ministry said on the condition of anonymity.
The official said the North Korea-U.S. talks might take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the two sides had held meetings on the issue before.
The U.S. has recovered more than 220 sets of remains since 1996, but it halted joint recovery efforts with North Korea in 2005, citing the safety and security concerns of its workers.
On Sept. 21, the chief nuclear negotiators from the two Koreas held a second round of talks in Beijing and discussed terms for resuming the six-party talks, which also include China, Japan and Russia.
Although the Beijing meeting produced little progress, the two sides called it "constructive and useful."
Their first meeting in July prompted senior North Korean and U.S. diplomats to hold a rare meeting in New York.
After this week's inter-Korean talks, South Korean officials said that North Korea wants to hold a fresh round of bilateral meetings with the U.S. next month.
The six-party talks, aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programs in exchange for economic and political aid, have been dormant since Pyongyang quit them in April 2009 and conducted its second nuclear test a month later.
The North has long sought to improve relations with the U.S. and sign a peace treaty to formally end decades of enmity since the war, which ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.
------------------------
North Korea Deepens Trade Dependence on China
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea's trade dependence on China deepened over the past four years, in contrast to a reduction in South Korea's share in the North's external trade, Seoul's Unification Ministry said in a report on Sept. 25.
The proportion of China in North Korea's foreign trade is on the rise, increasing from 41.6 percent in 2007 to 49.5 percent in 2008, 52.7 percent in 2009 and 57.1 percent last year, the report said.
By contrast, South Korea saw its share of the North's trade declining from 38.0 percent in 2007 to 33.0 percent in 2009 to 31.4 percent last year, it noted.
In terms of trade volume, too, bilateral trade between North Korea and China jumped from US$1.97 billion in 2007 to $2.68 billion in 2009 and $3.47 billion in 2010, the report said, adding the inter-Korean trade volume slightly increased from $1.8 billion in 2007 to $1.91 billion last year.
Inter-Korean relations tumbled to their lowest point in decades, after Seoul imposed sanctions on North Korea last year for an island shelling and the March sinking of a South Korean warship, which together killed a total of 50 South Koreans.
------------------------
N. Korea's Leader-in-waiting Increases Public Appearances
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea's leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-un has actively taken part in public activities since he officially debuted a year ago, South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Sept. 26.
Kim accompanied his father, the country's leader Kim Jong-il, on 100 out of 152 inspection tours for the past one year, the ministry said after analyzing North Korean state media reports.
The move illustrates that Kim Jong-il's plan to extend his family dynasty for a third generation is under way in the isolated country.
The North Korean leader named his youngest son, Jong-un, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party and a four-star general last September in the clearest sign yet to make him the next leader.
The succession, if made, would mark communism's second hereditary power transfer. The elder Kim inherited power from his father, the country's founder Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.
On 26 of the 100 outings, the heir apparent son inspected military units along with his father, while on 25, he visited economic facilities, according to the ministry that handles inter-Korean affairs.
Kim Jong-un attended a summit between his father and Laos President Choummaly Sayasone in Pyongyang last week, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency.
Kim Jong-un has not yet made any solo inspection trips, though some photos released by the North's state media put the leader-in-waiting in the center of the photos.
The North has also taken steps to idolize Kim Jong-un in an apparent move to consolidate support from its people in the country's power succession process.
------------------------
Further N. Korean Provocations Could Be on the Horizon: Adm. Willard
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The military commander in charge of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region expressed concern on Sept. 27 that North Korea will resume belligerence related to its ongoing power succession.
"The dynamics surrounding succession and, you know, most importantly, the prospect of continued provocations is another dynamic that we must pay very close attention to," Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a briefing at the Foreign Press Center in Washington.
He said the U.S. believes that succession was a factor in the North's deadly attacks on the South in 2010 that killed 50 soldiers and civilians.
The North's leader, Kim Jong-il, suffered a heart attack in 2008 and apparently has named his third son, Kim Jong-un, as successor.
The senior Kim's health remains a subject of speculation. Earlier this week, a Japanese news agency reported that he had canceled a meeting with a visiting Indonesian delegation led by former President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
"And the prospects that he (Jong-un) could be somehow accountable in a next provocation is important to understand as well," Willard said.
He added that his troops are carefully monitoring the possibility of further nuclear and ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang, especially next year, which the communist regime has declared a self-styled "strong and prosperous" year.
"You suggest that in the nuclearization regime, the prospects of ballistic missile launches or additional nuclear tests could be on the horizon, and we watch these things very carefully and we are concerned, as you suggest, that he will continue to promote his ballistic missile programs as well as his weapon programs," he said in response to a question.
Willard said the U.S. and South Korea under President Lee Myung-bak are discussing how to respond to future provocations by the North. The commander added South Korea's stance has become far tougher since the two unprovoked attacks by the North last year.
"The attitude of the South Korean people and the attitude of President Lee's administration has fundamentally changed," he said. "And there is very strong, I think, intolerance at this point for any other additional provocations."
As to reports that South Korea is seeking to purchase the U.S. Global Hawk surveillance planes, the admiral said the allies are in discussions.
"There are discussions ongoing with regard to surveillance capabilities in the South," he said. "And I think the United States, as you know, is very guarded about these high-tech capabilities, you know, being provided as a defense article. So that discussion is, in fact, occurring."
The sale of the cutting-edge aircraft requires congressional approval for a waiver under the Missile Technology Control Regime.
(END)
